Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity

Herausgeber/Editors Christoph Markschies (Berlin) · Martin Wallraff (Basel) Christian Wildberg (Princeton)

Beirat/Advisory Board Peter Brown (Princeton) · Susanna Elm (Berkeley) Johannes Hahn (Münster) · Emanuela Prinzivalli (Rom) Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt)

69

James E. Goehring

Politics, Monasticism, and Miracles in Sixth Century Upper

A Critical Edition and Translation of the Coptic Texts on of Farshut

Mohr Siebeck James E. Goehring, born 1950; 1968 BA from UC Berkeley; 1972 MA from UC Santa Barbara; 1981 PhD in Early Christian Studies from Claremont University; currently Professor of Religion at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-152276-5 ISBN 978-3-16-152214-7 ISSN 1436-3003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio- graphie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

© 2012 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Nehren on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. The Greek and Coptic fonts in this work are available from www.linguistsoftware.com. Printed in Germany.

For Linda

Preface

This volume represents an interest that has spanned my academic career. In 1983, I delivered a paper at the international conference on the Roots of Egyptian Christianity in Claremont, California, entitled “New Frontiers in Pachomian Studies,” in which I explored the nature of the available sources, noting their concentration on the movement’s early history and the relative dearth of information on its later years. While the pattern is fully understandable, it awakened in me an interest in the later years of the movement, which led me to the texts on . This bore fruit in 1984 in the form of a paper delivered at the 1984 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature entitled “Chalcedonian Power Politics and the Demise of Pachomian Monasticism,” which appeared in 1989 in the Occasional Papers series of the Claremont Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. My decision in 1985 to accept a faculty position at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, resulted in new expectations and new scholarly connections. Interest in the documentary evidence of early Egyptian monasticism came to intrigue me in terms of the counter- evidence it supplied to the familiar literary accounts. Numerous papers and articles resulted, which led eventually to my interest in the role of the desert in the real and the literary construction of monastic origins. Throughout the years, however, as time permitted, I found myself return- ing to Abraham of Farshut. I carved out time to gather photographs of the manuscript pages, to transcribe and translate them, and to visit the museums and libraries that housed the originals. As my efforts progressed, Abraham of Farshut began to surface with increasing frequency as the subject of paper presentations and published articles. The decision to focus on these texts for my 1995 presidential address to the North American Patristics Society marked a turning point. While publication of the critical edition remained many years away, my focus had returned more fully to Abraham of Farshut. As with any research project, and especially one that has spanned so many years, numerous people and institutions that offered help, insight, and support deserve credit and thanks. Many elements in this volume depended on them. Tito Orlandi kindly supplied me with copies of Antonella Campagnano’s preliminary microfiche editions of White viii Preface

Monastery codices GB and GC, which contained the primary texts on Abraham of Farshut. The late René-Georges Coquin shared with me his interest in the project as well as his own transcriptions and photographs of the manuscript pages housed in the Institut français d’archéologie orientale. Stephen Emmel responded to numerous queries, checked various transcriptions against the originals, and helped resolve the codicology of the manuscripts. Apart from his wisdom and help, the codicological analysis and resulting pagination would be less secure. My colleague Mehdi Aminrazavi translated the Arabic section on Abraham of Farshut in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, and Febe Armanios kindly agreed to review it. Other scholars to whom I turned with specific questions and/or requests over the years included Monica Blanchard, Douglas Burton-Christie, Elizabeth Clark, Hans Förster, Gawdat Gabra, Clayton Jefford, W. Johnson, Rebecca Krawiec, Bentley Layton, Mark Mousa, Caroline Schroeder, L. Stoerk, Janet Timbie, Richard Valantasis, Tim Vivian, and Colin Wakefield. I would also like to thank Ilse König of Mohr Siebeck, whose friendly help in the typesetting process accounts for much of the volume’s pleasant design. I must thank as well those who facilitated my work at the various libraries and museums that currently house the manuscript pages, and supplied permission to publish them in the present edition. These included the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the Biblioteca Nazionale “Vittorio Emanuele III” in Naples, the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, the Insitute français d’archéologie orientale in Cairo, the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Both those with whom I corresponded and those on site were helpful and encouraging. I am also grateful to the Royal Library in Copenhagen which supplied the relevant pages from Zoega’s papers used in this edition, and to Paul Peeters of Peeters Publishers who granted permission to include the excerpt on Abraham contained in the Panegyric on Apollo. At my own institution, staff and students played an important role in the production of this volume. Our director of interlibrary loan services, Carla Bailey, offered essential aid, as did our departmental secretary, Cindy Toomey. Student requests to teach introductory Coptic generated opportunities to focus on the language and in some cases actually read pages from the panegyrics on Abraham of Farshut. Josh Sosin and Andrew Crislip, who went on in Classics and Early Christian Studies respectively, proved particularly capable and generated interesting insights into the text. Brent Arehart, Jennifer Hendricks, and Clelia LaMonica worked on the indices and proof read copies of the manuscript. Preface ix

Financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1993 and 2002–03 and from the University of Mary Washington on numerous occasions facilitated the acquisition of photographs, travel to various libraries and museums in Europe and America, and most impor- tantly the time necessary for uninterrupted work on the project. Finally, scholarship does not arise in a vacuum. Mine is grounded in a broader world of family, friends, nature, and pets. They form the ground from which my scholarship grows and to which I return constantly for stability and nourishment. Conversations over dinner, a glass of wine shared on our deck, birding, canoeing, hiking, and camping offer the respite from the demands of research and writing that for me make it possible. Nature resuscitates me; it is my “desert.” Through it all, Linda has been there with me. Her unflinching support has nourished me through the long process of this book’s production. She is my escape, and I cannot imagine accomplishing what I do without her. For these reasons and more, I dedicate this book to her. Finally, I must take note of Mieze and Cleo, who have been a constant presence in our lives these last few years. Mieze, in particular, was intimately involved in my project. Each morning when I headed up the stairs to my office, her feline form raced past me to my desk. As I sat down to write, she was there, brushing up against the computer screen, demanding attention. Only after the appropriate amount of petting, defined by her of course, did she settle down on her desktop cushion, allowing my work to begin; and then, as I worked, she occasionally caught my attention, glancing up in a fetching manner that demands acknowledge- ment (another welcome respite in the day). She, like Linda, made the work easier.

Fredericksburg, Virginia 2012 James E. Goehring

Table of Contents

Preface ...... vii

Abbreviations ...... xiii

Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 1: The Manuscripts ...... 5 A. White Codex GC ...... 6 I. Codicology ...... 7 II. Paleography, Orthography, and Language...... 9 III. History of the Codex and Its Publication ...... 13 B. Codex GB ...... 22 I. Codicology ...... 24 II. Paleography, Orthography, and Language...... 25 III. History of the Codex and Its Publication ...... 27

Chapter 2: Literary and Historical Analysis...... 32 A. Introduction ...... 32 B. Synoptic Account ...... 33 C. The Individual Sources and Their Development ...... 41 D. Hagiography and History ...... 50

Chapter 3: Texts and Translations ...... 68 A. White Monastery Manuscript GC...... 72 I. First Panegyric on Abraham of Farshut ...... 72 II. On Abraham of Farshut ...... 102 B. White Monastery Manuscript GB...... 110 I. Excerpt on Abraham of Farshut from a Panegyric on Manasse... 110 C. Fragment 1 ...... 120

Chapter 4: Related Texts ...... 122 A. Copto-Arabic Synaxarion ...... 122 B. Panegyric on Apollo 10 ...... 125 xii Table of Contents

Appendix A: Previously Published Editions ...... 127 Appendix B: Manuscript Pages Listed by Library ...... 130 Appendix C: Manuscript Sigla Table ...... 132 Plates ...... 133

Bibliography ...... 139 Index to the Coptic Texts ...... 147 A. Coptic Words ...... 147 B. Greek Loan Words ...... 151 C. Biblical Citations, Allusions, and References ...... 155 Index of Subjects ...... 156

Abbreviations

Amél É. Amélineau, Monuments pour servir a l’histoire del’Égypte chrétienne aux 4., 5., 6., et 7. siècles. Mèmoires publiés par les membres de la mission archéologique français au Caire 4/2. Paris: Leroux, 1895. BA Biblical Archeologist BEC Bibliothèque d’études coptes BIFAO Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale BM Bibliothèque du Muséon BN Bibliothéque nationale (Paris) or Biblioteca Nazionale (Naples) BRHE Bibliothèque de la revue d’histoire ecclésiatique BS Staatsbibliothek (Berlin) BSRAA Bulletin de la Société royale d’archéologie d’Alexandrie Camp GB Antonella Campagnano, ed. Preliminary Editions of Coptic Codices: Monb. GB: Life of Manasses – Encomium of – Encomium of Abraham. CMCL. Rome: Centro Italiano Microfisches, 1985. Camp GC Antonella Campagnano, ed. Preliminary Editions of Coptic Codices: Monb. GC: Life of Abraham – Encomium of Abraham. CMCL. Rome: Centro Italiano Microfisches, 1985. CBC Cahiers de la bibliotèque copte CH Church History CMCL Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti Letterari CS Cistercian Studies CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium Excerpt Excerpt on Abraham of Farshut contained in the Panegyric on Manasse (White Monastery Codex GB, pages 15–36) GM Göttingen Miszellen HDR Harvard Dissertations in Religion HOS-NME Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section One, The Near and Middle East JA Journal Asiatique JCS Journal of Coptic Studies JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies Lampe Lampe, G. W. H. A Patristic Greek Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961. LSJ Liddell, Henry George, et al, A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th edition with a supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968. Mèmoires Mèmoires publiés par les membres de la mission archéologique française au Caire MIFAO Mèmoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire MPON-NS Mitteilungen aus der Papyrussammlung der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer), Neue Series xiv Abbreviations

Munier M. Henri Munier, Catalogue general des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Manuscrits copte. Cairo: L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1916. NARCE Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt NB Nationalbibliothek (Vienna) NTS Studies OECS Oxford Early Christian Studies OLA Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta On Abraham On Abraham of Farshut (White Monastery Codex GC, Text 1) OP Occasional Papers Panegyric Panegyric on Abraham of Farshut (White Monastery Codex GC, Text 2) PO Patrologia orientalis Porta Porta Linguarum Orientalium PTS Patristische Texte und Studien RE Revue d’égyptologie REG Revue des études grecques RP Researches de papyrologie SA Studia Anselmiana SDAW Sitzungsberichte der deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin SEA Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum TDSA Testi e Documenti per lo Studio dell’ Antichità Zoega Zoega, Georg. Catalogus codicum copticorum manuscriptorum qui in Museo Borgiano Velitris adservantur. Rome, 1810; reprint ed., Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1903. Zoega (Papers) Georg Zoega’s papers housed at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark

Introduction

Compared with his predecessor Pachomius, whom tradition credits as the founder of the communal form of monastic life, Abraham of Farshut has garnered little recognition in the annals of the Egyptian church, let alone in the work of modern church historians. This is as one would expect given the general human interest in origins, whether expressed as the monastic movement’s own attention to its founding fathers or the fascination of later historians with the emergence of new ideas and movements. The latter’s orientation is, of course, encouraged by the nature of the former’s literary production; namely, texts focused on the sayings and stories of founding fathers, whose lives and words became guidebooks for those who followed. It is this pattern of history and its recording that generates knowledge of and interest in figures like Pachomius and his earliest disciples, those associated with origins. Later followers, with rare exception, receive but scant notice in the historical record, or more likely, disappear completely. Abraham of Farshut deserves, however, a more prominent place in the history of Egyptian monasticism. For while the stories of Pachomius and his immediate successors portray the origins of Pachomian monasticism in the fourth century, the accounts of Abraham record its final days in the sixth century. Ends, like beginnings, mark decisive moments in history, moments that more than most shape the production of the future and the memory of the past. While the innovative creation of a communal monastic federation significantly impacted the development of monasticism in Egypt and beyond, the movement’s demise in the course of the sixth century noticeably altered the understanding and memory of it in the emerging post-Chalcedonian discourse of Coptic Christianity. A full understanding of the importance of Pachomian monasticism in Christian history requires attention not only to its beginning, but also to its end. The texts edited and/or translated in this volume represent the sole surviving witnesses to Abraham of Farshut, the last Coptic orthodox (non- Chalcedonian)1 of the Pachomian monastic federation. As

1 I have followed Volker Menze’s reasoning in the use of the terms Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian to describe the two sides represented in the sources. Volker L. Menze, 2 Introduction such they offer valuable information on the latter-day fate of the movement and the way in which that fate impacted the remembered “history” of both Abraham of Farshut and Upper Egyptian coenobitic monasticism. The reader will soon discover that the sources in question are hagiographic in nature, fashioning a purposeful history that has more to do with the values and beliefs of the authors’ own time than the period of history they purport to describe. As such the texts bear witness to the way in which the Coptic community fashioned its own history in response to the theological, historical, and emotional divide that the opened up between Coptic Egypt and Byzantium. At the same time, however, careful evaluation of the texts offers insight into the probable cause of the Pachomian federation’s demise in the sixth century in the reign of the Byzantine emperor , a demise that in turn explains the subsequent landscape of Upper Egyptian coenobitic monasticism and the reformulated memory of it within Coptic Christianity. Interest in Abraham of Farshut, accounts of whom offer our only access to the final days of the Pachomian movement, has driven the research behind and shaped the format of this volume. Primary to the task has been the production of a new critical edition and English translation of three fragmentary sources on Abraham preserved in two tenth-eleventh century parchment codices from the White Monastery of in Atripe in Upper Egypt: A Panegyric on Abraham of Farshut and On Abraham of Farshut from White Monastery codex GC, and an extended Excerpt on Abraham of Farshut included in a Panegyric on Manasse from White Monastery codex GB. The majority of evidence on Abraham of Farshut and the final days of the Pachomian federation derives from these three texts. Unfortunately, the vicissitudes of time resulted in the early dismemberment of the codices within the White Monastery and the loss of.n numerous pages. Those that survived were then further scattered as western scholars acquired them for their countries’ museums and libraries. The various pages edited in this volume reside today in Vienna at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in Naples at the Biblioteca Nazionale “Vittorio Emanuele III,” in Cairo at the Insitute français d’archéologie orientale and the Coptic Museum, in Berlin at the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, and in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan Library. Numerous pages appeared in print relatively early,2

Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church, OECS (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 2. 2 Georg Zoega, Catalogus codicum copticorum manuscriptorum qui in Museo Borgiano Velitris adservantur (Rome: Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, 1810); É. Amélineau, Monuments pour servir a l’histoire de l’Égypte chrétienne aux 4., 5., 6., et 7. Siècles, Mèmoires 4/2 (Paris: Leroux, 1895); Johannes Leipoldt, Sinuthii Archimanritae Introduction 3 and all were brought together in 1985 in a preliminary microfiche edition that incorporated the earlier published versions,3 a careful critical edition remained a desideratum. That edition forms the heart of the present volume. It required with few exceptions a new collation of the actual manuscript pages.4 While many of the pages are clean and easily legible, others have suffered from blotting and the transference of ink from a facing page.5 In addition, given the numerous missing pages and the frequent loss of page numbers on those that survive, a thorough codicological analysis was undertaken so as to reconstruct the original codices and thus the correct order of the surviving pages. While the Excerpt on Abraham of Farshut occupies but five of the surviving twenty- seven leaves of White Monastery codex GB, analysis required the reconstruction of the entire codex to insure the proper placement of the leaves relevant to Abraham of Farshut edited in this volume. Two chapters precede the critical edition and following translation. The first, entitled “The Manuscripts: History and Paleography,” lays the foundation for the edition. It includes for each codex a thorough codi- cological analysis that establishes structure and pagination, an account of “Paleography, Orthography, and Language” that explores scribal practices, and a “History of the Codex and Its Publication” that recounts the life of each codex since its modern discovery. The second chapter, entitled “Literary and Historical Analysis,” offers studies based on the critical edition and related texts. It includes a synoptic account of Abraham’s story drawn from the various sources, a study of the literary structure and ideology of the more complete individual sources, and an exploration of the relationship between hagiography and history that seeks to unravel what can be known about Abraham of Farshut and the final days of the Pachomian federation. As such, it offers evidence and conclusions with

Vita et Opera Omnia, CSCO 73, Scriptores Coptici 5 (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1913); M. Henri Munier, Catalogue general des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire: Manuscrits copte (Cairo: L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1916), No. 9250. For specific references to specific pages see the codicological analysis of each codex in the chapter on “The Manuscripts: History and Paleography,” and Appendix A. 3 Antonella Campagnano, ed., Preliminary Editions of Coptic Codices: Monb. GC: Life of Abraham – Encomium of Abraham, CMCL (Rome: Centro Italiano Microfisches, 1985); idem, Preliminary Editions of Coptic Codices: Monb. GB: Life of Manasses – Encomium of Moses – Encomium of Abraham, CMCL (Rome: Centro Italiano Micro- fisches, 1985). 4 For the leaves at the Insitute français d’archéologie orientale, I relied on the transcription and photographs kindly supplied to me by the late René-Georges Coquin. For the single leaf in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, I used Munier’s published version (Catalogue général, No. 9250, pp. 62–63) checked against a recent photograph. 5 Transference from the facing page is clearly visible, for example, on the page shown in Plate 3 (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, IB 8 f. 48v), and blotting is visible in the page shown in Plate 5 (Michigan, University Library, Coptic Ms. 158, 46b(v)).